Kissing Booth
by Laburnum26
Summary: Rika drags Aphrodi into organising a kissing booth at the upcoming school fair and things don't go as smoothly as Aphrodi had excpected them to.


Afuro Terumi was screwed. Yet again. He huffed in annoyance as he ran a hand through his blond locks for what felt like the billionth time. He couldn't believe that he let himself be fooled like that! He really should have seen it coming, after all the years he had spent being Rika's friend (and, well, occasional lab rat for her crazy ideas). Urabe Rika was a girl who he could only describe as batshit crazy. However, she was one of Aphrodi's closest friends and the boy wasn't sure if he should be glad or terrified by the fact. Rika was loud, annoyingly girly, and had the most absurd ideas in the world. Like this one, for instance, when she convinced Aphrodi to organise a kissing booth for the school fair. _A kissing booth for a school fair, like in some idiotic American high school romcom!_ The girl had guts, that's for sure. And, apparently, had the brains too, since she managed to get the school board to actually give their blessing to it. So that's how Aphrodi ended up with a really enthusiastic Rika behind a stall with a sign "kissing booth" and a price for a kiss which was way too low for Aphrodi's liking. But that wasn't the thing that bothered the blond boy the most. What really got on his nerves was Rika's "sense of time" as the girl liked to call it. When Rika reeled Aphrodi into this whole mess, they had agreed to man the booth in equal amounts, just to be fair. The first round would be Rika's, then after an hour Aphrodi would take over, then Rika again after another hour, then Aphrodi again and so on, until the event would arrive to its end. It was such a simple plan; even an ape would have understood it. But of course plans are meant to be ruined even though everything started off smoothly at first. Rika started her first hour, smiling charmingly at people passing by and shouting after them something on the lines of "This is a chance not to miss/'cause you get to kiss/this beautiful miss!" which immediately caused Aphrodi to mentally cringe at the awkward poem. She was jumping up and down in excitement while making weird gestures with her hands. No wonder she was a cheerleader, Aphrodi thought. With that voice of hers, she could rouse the dead from their eternal slumber and make them win a game even against the national team. So the first hour passed in loud shouting while Rika distributed kisses to every poor soul who dared to approach the stall within two meters. They had a moderate amount of success; their shoe box of coins was still only full about to a quarter. Aphrodi snickered as he remembered that this definitely wasn't what the principal was expecting. Even though Rika managed to get his approval, it was on the condition of donating the raised money to the school's rather empty foundation. The gym needed new equipment, the library needed faster computers, and the canteen was waiting for a big renewal as well. But with this amount of money, the school would be able to buy a few second-hand textbooks the most. However, it was none of Aphrodi's concern; he just hoped that the principal wouldn't make a big scandal about it. So when the time arrived, he took over the booth with little worry. In retrospect, he should have been worried.

He wasn't even manning the booth for what felt like fifteen minutes when Aphrodi had to realize that people were clearly more interested in him than they were in Rika. At another time, he sure would have appreciated the attention, but in this particular case, he just wanted to get over with it. He checked his watch for the fiftieth time, took a sharp breath and let his eyes wander over the small crowd gathering in front of the DIY cardboard structure decorated with plenty of glitter and paper hearts (courtesy of Rika). Oh boy, this was going to be a long hour!

And in fact, it was one hell of an hour. Aphrodi kissed more people than he could care to count and now all he wished for was a break. Luckily, he didn't have to wait any longer for it. He turned his head to the side and looked down at Rika. The blue haired girl was crouched next to Aphrodi, her back leaning against the wall with phone in one hand. She seemed greatly immersed in her phone and was typing so furiously, Aphrodi thought the screen would crack any minute. Rika suddenly realized Aphrodi was staring at her, and she looked up at him.

"Hey, guess what! My Darling had a match yesterday, and a video of it got uploaded, so of course, I had to check it to see my man play again but then I scrolled down and you wouldn't believe what I saw!" she ignored the sarcastic-faked horrified gasp coming from Aphrodi and put one hand to her heart in a dramatic pose. "Someone was writing trash about PA!" PA was short for Pegasus Academy, the top-notch prissy American private school Rika's boyfriend went to. They were exclusive and super strict when it came to rules. The school of course, not Rika and her boyfriend. To be honest, Aphrodi knew very little of Rika's One True Love, he had only met him twice while he was staying at Rika's for a short time. The guy seemed nice enough if not a bit anxious at times. Or maybe it was just due to Rika, to whose random outbursts the poor boy usually ducked his head in an automatic defence measure.

"Rika!" Aphrodi pinched the bridge of his nose. "People talk trash all the time on the internet. They are called trolls for a reason. Don't waste your time with them. Come and man the booth instead, it's your turn."

"I can't right now. A bitch is waiting to be roasted," the cheerleader said and her attention was immediately focused back onto the screen. "Plus, with you, the business is booming!" Aphrodi sighed in exasperation but decided against arguing with her. Starting a fight with Rika was almost pointless since she wouldn't even care to listen. Whenever her _Darling_ was involved in something, her hearing and vision became quite selective. So he chose the next best option instead.

"Ten minutes max," he said in a threatening voice and turned back to the slowly dissipating crowd in front of the booth. He could manage ten more minutes, Aphrodi assured himself. The only problem was that Rika's dictionary didn't actually contain the expression "ten minutes". Because suddenly, ten minutes turned into fifteen, then into twenty and then into twenty-five minutes, and Rika still hadn't looked up from her phone. After an hour had passed, Aphrodi was seriously on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"What the hell takes you so damn long?" the blond boy hissed through gritted teeth. And at last, Rika finally lifted her gaze off the screen.

"Hey, look!" she said cheerfully, as if nothing had happened. "Touko has been transferred back here, she sent a pic from the base!" and indeed, in the picture was a girl with a grin as wide as the Grand Canyon with messy shoulder-length red hair, dressed in a khaki uniform and hat. Zaizen Touko was a former upperclassman of Rika's and her best friend before Aphrodi transferred here. When she graduated, she joined the army and now worked as a general at a small military unit, but in the picture, she was smiling as if she had never gone through the worst of hell at the army. She was way too young to serve in the military in Aphrodi's opinion, but the girl was a tough one, he could tell, even if just from Rika's anecdotes. "We can finally meet again!" Rika turned back excitedly to her phone and Aphrodi could literally feel the veins starting to pulse in his head. So, he changed tactics.

"Girl, I'm really happy for you. Really, I am. But we agreed on switching, and I swear to the Gods, if you don't stand up and take my place in the next three seconds, I'll go and dump this shoebox of cash into the dumpsters, and I don't care if we get expelled for it." This new plan turned out to be more effective, since Rika quickly rose to her feet, her face wrinkled up in a pout as she begrudgingly changed places with Aphrodi while murmuring something along the lines of "no need the unleash that divine wrath of yours", but Aphrodi just rolled his eyes. The divine or god jokes were really nothing new to him. People always made teasing remarks about him or his appearance or his love for Ancient Greek culture and mythology, so he was used to people making jokes about him being a god and all that. Actually, that was the reason why he got the nickname "Aphrodi". Almost everyone in school called him that because he was clearly and openly a mythology nerd and, well, his appearance did seem to resemble in some way that of the Goddess of Love with his long, blond hair and delicate frame.

So, Aphrodi could finally sit back and relax. He leaned against the wall with a contended sigh and closed his eyes, letting the relaxing feel of his muscles unclenching surge through his body. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and looked around. It was clear that the school fair was slowly but surely coming to an end. Even though there was still almost an hour left of the event, a lot of stalls had closed shop already due to selling out or simply because of the exhausted students. Aphrodi himself wished to pack up and just leave, but that would be admitting defeat. Rika finally took her turn, and she would work for all that money that Aphrodi had raised. Because by the looks of it, Rika wasn't getting many customers. It was not her fault though, the corridor was almost empty, and most of the students have already sneaked out of the building. It was an extra-curricular event, so no one really bothered to check whether everyone was staying until the last hour. Occasionally, one or two students walked by, but none of them spared even a glance at the stall.

As he heard the sound of footsteps growing louder and louder in the acoustic corridor, Aphrodi cracked one eye open, and it immediately went wide. He quickly opened his other eye, because he had to double check to make it sure, but indeed, his eyes weren't deceiving him. The one crossing the corridor was none other than Mutou Satoshi. The boy had long, purple hair, reaching way down past his shoulder blades and the warmest hazel eyes Aphrodi has ever seen. He had a white towel around his neck and was taking quick breaths as he dabbed his damp hair with the end of the towel. He must have come from practice, the sane part of Aphrodi observed. Mutou played as a striker in the school's football team, and no, the fact didn't make him any less attractive. Aphrodi has been crushing on him for almost a year now. He met the boy through Rika, at one of the parties that were thrown after a big victory (or an unfair lose) at some player's house. Rika dragged Aphrodi along because her _Darling_ wasn't free that night, and Rika needed supervision when it came to partying. That was when Rika introduced him to the whole football team (and, well, to the cheerleader team as well, but that didn't really grasp Aphrodi's interest), and that was when Aphrodi first saw Mutou. After a brief handshake, neither of them really spoke to each other (due to the fact that Aphrodi was so stunned by the boy's handsomeness that he suddenly forgot all the communication skills he used to have, and, because, as he came to know later on, Mutou wasn't really the one for small talk. Or for talk, in general. As from what information Aphrodi gathered within several months, Mutou was a calm and collected boy with a solid moral compass but with few social abilities, and his comportment had a certain distinctness to it. His moves were delicate but calculated. His speech was always polite but at the same time somewhat reserved. So, Mutou was everything the hot headed blond wasn't; but that didn't stop Aphrodi from falling head over heels for the poor boy who must have had no idea about the whole situation. Despite their first awkward meeting, Aphrodi and Mutou remained good acquaintances. They would wave at each other while passing in the hallway and, sometimes, they would eventually make small talk after practice, while both of them were waiting for their friends to change and finally be able to be off. So it was no surprise that the purple-haired striker waved and headed towards them when he spotted the duo behind the stall. Nevertheless, Aphrodi's heart skipped a beat while he tried to get his knees to cooperate in standing up and moving his body next to Rika.

As soon as the cheerleader spotted Mutou, her face lit up. While Aphrodi was still contemplating on which form of greeting to choose ("good day" sounded so formal, while a casual "hello" made Aphrodi think that he would seem careless), Rika had no such qualms about it.

"Hey, Mutou-kun!" she shouted enthusiastically, letting everyone know even on the third floor that, indeed, Urabe Rika has spotted a friend. She waved towards him in an over exaggerated manner while a small smile spread across the boy's lips.

"Hello, Rika-san!" he said and turned his head towards Aphrodi and nodded slightly, his gaze never meeting the blonde's. "Aphrodi-san."

Suddenly, Aphrodi was too aware of how the temperature in the corridor seemed to rise. This was absolutely abnormal. It was May, for the Gods, who would ever think of turning the heating on in here?! No wonder the school needed money, if they heat away all of their funds!

"How are you doing, Mutou-kun?" the blue haired girl asked. "How was practice?"

"It was fine," the boy said, and even though he wasn't actually smiling anymore, Aphrodi could hear the delight in his voice. "We still got a lot to work on, but I'm actually quite optimistic this time," the boy said, and that was when Aphrodi knew that that football team must be really something. Mutou was the most realistic guy he had ever met; he had a real down-to-earth mentality and he didn't throw around praises in the air just for nothing. Aphrodi couldn't help but let a goofy smile loom its way to his expression. He really liked when Mutou was optimistic. "And you, guys?" came the question, and Aphrodi was shaken out of his daydreaming in an instant. Somehow he actually realised that they were indeed doing a kissing booth, and oh boy, if this wasn't his luckiest day in years!

"Actually," the blond boy cleared his throat. "I was about to take over the booth, since Rika-chan's shift was just about to end." He tried to smile as innocently as he could while he also prayed that Rika would get the hint being a self-proclaimed love expert and all.

"You what now?" Rika asked incredulously. "C'mon man, you've been whining for a whole hour wanting me switch you out, and now that I've taken over, you actually want to switch back?" she asked in pure confusion. Looks like Aphrodi overestimated Rika's expertise in the domain of love and subtle hints. Oh well, there's nothing that a good shove in the ribs wouldn't solve.

While Rika was trying to grasp her side and catch her breath not too obviously, Aphrodi put on his most charming smile and turned to the boy at the other end of the booth who watched the events with a mildly confused expression and a raised brow. A couple of seconds passed while Rika regained her composure. She stared at the duo warily, her gaze darting from one to another with incredible speed. And finally, after what felt like an eternity to Aphrodi, the penny dropped. Her face lit up as the realisation hit her, and she sent a rather smug smirk towards Aphrodi spiced with a weird suggestive lift of her blue eyebrows (an expression which was sure to haunt Aphrodi in his future nightmares).

"Of course!" she slapped a hand across her forehead. "I was just about to head for the…" her voice seemed the waver for a minute. "Toilets," she finished with absolute conviction. Well, Rika wasn't the best at improvisation, but Aphrodi had to give her kudos for the dramatic vehemence. "I'll trust you can take care of things while I'm away?" she said as she was clearly fighting to be able to keep the amusement and mockery out of her voice. "Good luck, make sure he pays just as much as any customer would!" she shouted over her shoulder, then all Aphrodi could make out was a blue blur, and suddenly the ever-enthusiastic cheerleader was gone.

As soon as Rika disappeared out of sight, a slightly awkward silence settled between the two boys. Aphrodi still couldn't believe his luck that he actually managed to get into this situation with Mutou of all people! _Just_ _like in some idiotic American high school romcom,_ he smiled to himself. He must have done something really noble for the Gods to provide him such a lucky situation, he amused as he stared at the purple-haired striker with a rather starstruck expression. On the other hand, Mutou's expression wasn't as trusting. He eyed the blond boy warily as one would scrutinize a wildcat in its cage: fascinated but ready to bolt at any minute in case something bad happened. So, Aphrodi decided to step up his game. After all, he wasn't nicknamed after the goddess of love for nothing!

He flashed his brightest smile and looked the boy right into the eyes, determined to say something flirty.

"So, you come here often?" Aphrodi wanted to mentally slap his own face for the slip-up. Way to go, Casanova, just barge down that damn door, wouldn't you?!

Mutou looked around the area with furrowed brows and asked: "You mean… the corridor?" Well, there's no turning back now, so Aphrodi just slightly nodded. Mutou's expression didn't soften, but he shrugged. "I guess," he replied. "Though I have classes more frequently on the third floor."

Aphrodi quickly swallowed back the laughter threatening to burst through his mouth. The boy took his question literally!

"I see," Aphrodi replied to gain some time to think. "So, care to help us out in raising funds for the school?" he asked next. This time Aphrodi mentally patted himself on the back. That was so subtle that even he wasn't sure where he wanted this conversation to go.

"Sure. The gym could use a few new soccer balls. What you guys doing?" the striker asked, his distrust slowly dissolving. Aphrodi pointed upwards, to the huge sign with "kissing booth" written all over in pink and filled with so many drawn red hearts that Aphrodi was pretty sure that it was unhealthy. Mutou followed the motion with his gaze, finally settling onto the ominous carton board. What happened next was absolutely unexpected: the ever-collected boy, who was always polite and whose expression rarely betrayed his thoughts, turned to a curious shade of beet.

"Ah I see…" he murmured to himself as he was clearly trying to recompose himself. Aphrodi knew that a lot of people were against their idea and some of them (like Nagumo) even cared to voice their displeasure. Maybe Mutou was one of those people who found a kissing booth on a school fair scandalous. Aphrodi decided it was time to backtrack before Mutou gave a piece of his mind too on the matter, just like Nagumo did.

"Of course, if you're against the idea, I absolutely understand, the thought is what counts," the blond boy said quickly.

"No-no, of course not," Mutou quickly reassured him. "It's a really… hmm…" he coughed. "Creative way of raising funds. And everything for a better equipped school, right?" he asked and fished out a few coins of the pocket of his shorts. He laughed, but the sound was strained as if he was trying to convince himself to put the money into the box. Finally, he dropped the coins into the makeshift bank. He then stared at Aphrodi expectantly with the colour not fading a bit on his face. Aphrodi was glad that even though he had a pale complexion, he wasn't the one to easily blush. And on the few occasions when he felt insecure or embarrassed or overjoyed, only his earns turned red. Thus the long hair, and he thanked the Gods that this time his ears were safely tucked behind his blond locks because he could feel that they were almost flaming.

Aphrodi looked back at Mutou as he listened to the pounding of his heart in his ears. Should he make the first move? Should he be the one to lean in? Or should he just wait until Mutou feels comfortable enough to come closer? As he looked at the boy, he could clearly see the hesitation on his face. Does he not like him? Funny enough, this thought had never crossed Aphrodi's mind before. Everyone is always so swept away by his appearance and manners and his whole charm that the thought has never actually occurred to him. But what if Mutou only liked him as a friend?

However, before Aphrodi could fall into an endless cycle of overthinking, the purple-haired boy suddenly moved towards him and put his lips to Aphrodi's. Immediately, all coherent thoughts stopped coursing through Aphrodi's brain while he felt the strength escaping his legs. He quickly braced himself on the top of the counter as he tried not to get lost in the kiss too much. It was really the sweetest and most innocent kiss Aphrodi had today, hell, even his whole life, and he didn't want this moment to ever end. But this time, the Gods decided that this was enough luck for today and the next thing Aphrodi knew was that Mutou had drawn back and was face to face again with him. His whole face was burning and Aphrodi could also feel that the heat had finally spread across his own cheeks as well. They stared at each other for a few seconds; both not quite comprehending what they had just done. Finally, after an eternity, Mutou coughed in embarrassment and turned away.

"Well, good luck to the rest of the fair," he croaked and repositioned a strand of hair behind his ear. He was clearly going, and Aphrodi started to panic. No, this can't end like this! After a whole year of pining that's it? Maybe Mutuo didn't get the message that he likes him? Nah, that can't be it, Aphrodi literally kissed him on the lips! Well, as part of a kissing booth project where they were raising funds by kissing people, and Aphrodi had kissed a lot of people, and oh for the love of the Gods, Mutou had no idea! Aphrodi had to think of something quickly before Mutou's retreating back disappeared completely out of sight. So, he decided to act upon instinct.

"Wait!" he didn't really even think through what he was going to say, but Mutou immediately turned around and raised a questioning eyebrow at his direction. "Are you free on Sunday?" There goes nothing!

"Uhm… I guess?" the purple-haired boy scratched his neck; feeling embarrassed at the sudden attention Aphrodi gave him as his cheeks turned yet again a faint shade of red. "I'll have practice in the morning but after that I'm mostly free. Why?" he asked suspiciously as if he was waiting for Aphrodi to take back what he said at any moment.

"You see…"Aphrodi started. "Rika's boyfriend is having a match, a super elite one, that is. And of course, Rika, being her girlfriend, got a couple of extra tickets. Of course she would get, why wouldn't she, right?" oh for the Gods' sake, now he was rambling! He should have been named after the goddess of nonsense, not the goddess of love! "And you see, I actually got a plus one, and since you are a striker and everything I thought you'd be interested, and maybe we could go there together so I could show you the place, it's an amazingly huge stadium really, one of the best, and you see…" Aphrodi was tripping on his words and he saw Mutuo's lips curving into small smile at his struggling.

"Thank you for thinking of me," the boy replied, his voice more measured than ever and for a moment Aphrodi's heart skipped a beat as he became sure that Mutou was going to decline his sort-of-clumsy-date-proposal. "I would love to watch Ichinose-san's match with you," he said.

"Oh, great," Aphrodi let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "So how about we meet half an hour before the match at the park next to the school? Around six? "

"Sounds great," Mutou smiled amicably, blush fading on his face. And the next moment, the purple-haired boy was gone just like an illusion, but Aphrodi knew that it was anything but an illusion. He placed his head in the palm of his hands as he grinned at the empty corridor like some idiot. Oh boy, Rika was going to freak out so much!


End file.
